Somerset Maugham's novel The Theater and its main character, Julia Lambert

Today the theater is no longer the same as in the pre-kinetic era, when it was the center of the cultural life of society. At that time, theatrical actors, like movie actors today, were idols. Trying to talk about their everyday life and holidays, in 1937 Somerset Maugham wrote the novel "The Theater". Since its creation, much has changed, but even now this book, like its main character, Julia Lambert, continues to interest readers.

Somerset Maugham's novel "The Theater"

This ironic work is the best among the creative legacy of Maugham. Many readers still wonder whether the main character, Julia Lambert (Lambert), had a real prototype or was only a figment of the writer's fantasy.

Soon after publication, the novel became popular not only in the UK, but also in other countries. This was not only an interesting story, revealing secrets behind the scenes of theatrical stars, but also inimitable irony of the author. Another highlight was that the writer in The Theater delicately touched on the so-called taboo subject of homosexuality among women.

After many years, interest in the novel did not fade away, and in 1962 the Germans shot the film "Charming Julia" based on this work. In the USSR, "Theater" was filmed after 16 years. The English-language adaptation of this book, entitled "Being Julia", appeared only in 2004. If the German film was not very popular, then the tapes "Being Julia" and "The Theater" appealed to the audience, and each adaptation of the book showed the main character quite differently .

The plot of the novel about Julia Lambert

At the beginning of the story, the main character - actress Julia Lambert (age 46) achieved everything she could only dream about. Her amazing actor's talent is appreciated, she is rich, she is accepted in high society, she has a reliable spouse, a beautiful son and faithful admirers.

However, having got acquainted with the twenty-one-year-old clerk Tom Fennel, Julia loses her head. At first she just flattered the attention of the ardent young man, but later she falls in love with him desperately.

Despite the passion, Julia Lambert gradually realizes that her lover is just a gigolo. The last straw is that Tom falls in love with the talentless young actress Evis Crichton and tries to help Julia arrange for her role in the new play.

Collecting the will into a fist, the main character parted with Fennel and for a time leaves for home, to France. Here she wakes up and forgets Tom. However, after returning home, Julia Lambert decides to avenge both the unfaithful Tom and his passion, and do it as an actress, not as a woman. She masterfully manages not only to fail the actor's debut Crichton, but also conquers a stormy ovation of the audience with his game.

Julia Lambert: biography of the heroine

In addition to the main events of the book, it tells in parallel how the heroine became famous. Born the best future actress in the UK in the family of a veterinarian. At first the young girl was trained by her aunt, but later she continued her education at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

After studying, Julia Lambert settled in one of the provincial theaters, where she was noticed by Jimmy Langton. This drunkard and loser was a talented director, he not only taught the young actress a lot, but also helped her to make a career.

At Langdon's Theater, Miss Lambert met her future husband, Michael. He was incredibly beautiful and just as incredibly talented. Becoming his wife, the actress soon became disillusioned with him as a man, but he became her a good business partner. Michael with the financial support of an extravagant richie Dolly de Vries opened his own theater, where all the main roles played by his wife. Actor's fame Julia helped their family to enter the elite of society. However, becoming successful and rich, the heroine wanted to be loved ...

Relations between Julia and other characters

Being a great actress, the main character managed to twist around as she wanted, but sometimes it came to her sideways.

In the relationship with Michael at first she had a passionate and faithful love. It was because of this that she was terribly jealous of him. But later, seeing his pettiness, greed and prudence - disappointed in him and fell out of love. However, all the subsequent years, the actress successfully played before him the role of a loving wife, because as a husband and director, he quite satisfied her. As for Michael himself, then disappointed in himself as an actor, he held on to Julia. It is noteworthy that the feelings of his wife, he was not interested in so much that calmly reacted to the termination of her sexual relations with her after several years of marriage. Moreover, he believed that Julia after the birth of her son has no sexual desire.

In Tom, the great actress was attracted by his passion for her. Lover was the opposite of the indifferent Michael, he adored sex and did not consider Julia old for this. Moreover, even being in love with Evis, he did not miss an opportunity to spend the night with a great actress. Miss Lambert was for him a ticket to high society, but at the same time, Tom sincerely admired her acting play on stage.

Long before Tom appeared, the great actress already had a lover - Lord Charles Tammerly, although their relationship was platonic. Thanks to this man, Julia Lambert learned superficially to understand art, but this knowledge was enough to look like a connoisseur. During their years of romance Charles several times persuaded the girlfriend to divorce her husband, but this was not part of her plans and she deftly refused. Disappointed in Tom, the actress decided to spend the night with Charles as a reward for years of dedication, but he refused, because age no longer allowed him.

It is interesting that in the 2004 film adaptation the lord was turned into a homosexual and this was justified by his refusal to engage in sex with Julia.

One of the most piquant storylines is the relationship between Lambert and Dolly de Vries. At the beginning of the acquaintance Michael sincerely believed that the rich man was crazy about him and therefore gives money for the opening of the theater. Unlike her husband, Julia quickly realized that Dolly was in love with her. But the great actress managed to keep this girlfriend's passion under control for many years. To Michael and Charles Tammerly Dolly was not jealous, because she felt that her friend was cold to them. But with the advent of Tom, she was worried and for the first time in all her long friendship a scandal, which Julia could hardly manage to settle.

But the relationship with the son of the actress did not work out. Roger loved his mother, but unlike his parents, he was not inclined to pretend. Therefore, he once told his mother everything that he thought about her pretense. This is the only character Julia could not handle, so she felt uncomfortable in his presence.

If all the previous characters loved the main character, then Evis Crichton wanted to eclipse her. Tomisnerne fell in love with Evis and therefore did not see her true nature, but Julia Lambert understood her well. Actress Miss Crichton was lousy, but she was pretty and able to use it. According to the main character, her rival was ready to sleep with anyone who would offer her a good role. Charming Tom, Evis took over Michael, not even suspecting that Miss Lambert herself deliberately pushed her husband into her arms.

Separate attention deserves the relationship of Julia with the theater. For the great actress, this was the only place where she could be herself, without wearing masks, as in everyday life. In fact, the theater was the only true love and reality for Miss Lambert and at the end of the book the heroine realized this.

"Theater" with Viyya Artmane

The most successful and close to the plot of the book is the Soviet film adaptation of 1978.

In it, Julia Lambert (actress Via Artmane) is shown, as in the novel, an aging, but beautiful and full of life woman. Particularly successful finding is the conversation of the main character with the narrator. Thanks to this, it is possible to show more fully her inner experiences and a great ability to hide them.

"Being Julia" with Annette Bening

The second well-known adaptation is the movie "Being Julia" (in the Russian box office "Theater"). The plot of this tape only from afar reminds the story, in which Julia Lambert appears. The actress (photo Annette Bening, who performed this role, below) in this adaptation is a youthful skinny hysterical woman, who is not fully able to control herself. After breaking up with Tom, she soon discovers that Evis is trying to screw up a romance with Michael and punishes her. Particularly freely, the screenwriters managed with the failure of Miss Crichton's debut. Here the great actress does not demonstrate her skill, as in the book, but improvises, and not particularly successfully. Despite such a distortion of the image of the main character, the film was warmly received, and Annette Bening was even nominated for an Oscar.

Although the theater today is slowly dying, but the life of actors, especially famous, is not much different from the one described in the "Theater." Constant intrigues and attempts to eclipse or use - this is a harsh reality of this profession. And the audience can only hope that there will be such talented actresses as Julia Lambert, even if she is a fictional character, both in the cinema and on the stage.